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Flipboard Begins to Federate

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Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#71

Post by webmaven »

apitman wrote: post #35
indymike wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but surely most of them never would have used XMPP in the first place. There was a time that Facebook messenger was XMPP and Google chat was XMPP, so there was a time it was gaining a lot of traction. Most people just think their email is email. They don't see it as using SMTP/IMAP/POP3.

I guess what I'm asking is was adoption by big tech a net negative? If you add 50 million users then take away 50 million users, then maybe no harm done. Unless there were other effects as well.

Gaining then losing 50m users is a net negative in a world where "line goes up and to the right" (ie. momentum) is the most basic heuristic for assessing the viability of a platform (and especially so for social platforms where the users create the content).

The only way that negative effect is muted is if the 50m users is only a small fraction of the platform's reach. Say, under 2%.

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#72

Post by kazinator »

simonw wrote: post #6

I'm excited about this - and about Threads too. I've been on Mastodon for just over a year now. It works really surprisingly well, especially considering it's stitched together from so many independent, non-profit open source instances. But... it's still not easy enough for non-nerds to get onboard. I'd love to see efforts from organizations like Flipboard, and Threads, and Automattic make an impact here. I want to b…

> I want to be able to follow interesting content from the kind of people who are put off by language like "first, select your federated instance".

But not put off by language like, first select Threads, Flipboard or Automattic?

Can these people fog a mirror?

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#73

Post by itsmartapuntocm »

james_pm wrote: post #68
itsmartapuntocm wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After all this time I think Facebook still you gives the option to send you PGP encrypted emails, which is pretty wild.

Nope. Deprecated just a couple of weeks ago.

Dang. I loved that it was still there as a relic of when it wasn’t quite as mainstream.

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#74

Post by PhasmaFelis »

iteratethis wrote: post #51
egypturnash wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once upon a time you could follow someone's public Facebook posts from any RSS reader you liked, whether or not you had an account. Now the only way to follow someone's Facebook posts is to have an account there. And Facebook will probably only show you a small fraction of the posts by the people you actually follow, sorted by what Meta thinks is most likely to make Meta money. If you trust Meta to not follow a simil…

I remember the RSS times. But let's be honest. Even then it was only tech enthusiasts using an RSS reader. Probably the same people now experimenting with the Fediverse. Do I trust Meta regarding federation? No. But I'm thinking it's an afterthought for them. The Fediverse isn't a threat to them at all, just like RSS never was. I totally understand that some instances have strong opinions about this and self-isolate…

> I remember the RSS times. But let's be honest. Even then it was only tech enthusiasts using an RSS reader.

RSS is still the best way to follow webcomics.

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#75

Post by vitorgrs »

egypturnash wrote: post #42
iteratethis wrote: post #29

Threads is also testing federation, it supposedly is close to being enabled. Interesting dynamic is that Mastodon's community is such a sour bunch that likely most instance owners will block federation with Threads at the domain level. Because "Meta evil". This takes away choice at the user level. Normal people that just want to connect with people and content no matter where it is hosted, which is the very purpose o…

Once upon a time you could follow someone's public Facebook posts from any RSS reader you liked, whether or not you had an account. Now the only way to follow someone's Facebook posts is to have an account there. And Facebook will probably only show you a small fraction of the posts by the people you actually follow, sorted by what Meta thinks is most likely to make Meta money. If you trust Meta to not follow a simil…

> I do not want Meta to suck in my posts for free and use them as something to spread apart Meta ad views.

Unless your profile is private, they don't need Threads to federate to have access to your profile...

Actually, with Reddit, Twitter and Meta APIs being closed, would be a very good idea for AI companies to get some data from Mastodon instances to train LLMs....

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#76

Post by wizzwizz4 »

iteratethis wrote: post #39
Zak wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Threads has (as of late last week) enabled federation for a small set of employee accounts. Here's a federated post; it doesn't look like comments and likes are federating: https://mastodon.world/@mosseri@threads.net/1115866154367492... I don't think most instance owners will block them. The larger servers I've paid attention to don't plan to at this time, though many people have expressed concerns about it being an…

I agree that it's a loud minority complaining about Threads but that loud minority is quite powerful in the Mastodon community. I think the "embrace, extend, and extinguish" fear is hilarious. The Fediverse is tiny and useless to Meta. Threads as a really crappy Twitter clone is just launched and many times the size of the Fediverse. By federating, they're losing algorithmic control and monetization possibilities. Ho…

Facebook has acquired smaller competitors in the past. Where it hasn't been able to acquire, it's federated: you might remember that Facebook used to federate with MySpace.

> I agree that it's a loud minority complaining about Threads but that loud minority is quite powerful in the Mastodon community.

That “loud minority” is largely composed of sociopolitical minorities. To the extent that they're powerful on the Fediverse, it's because the Fediverse is a place run by and for them.

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#77

Post by RandallBrown »

iteratethis wrote: post #29

Threads is also testing federation, it supposedly is close to being enabled. Interesting dynamic is that Mastodon's community is such a sour bunch that likely most instance owners will block federation with Threads at the domain level. Because "Meta evil". This takes away choice at the user level. Normal people that just want to connect with people and content no matter where it is hosted, which is the very purpose o…

I don't fully understand what federation means for something like Threads and Mastodon.

Will I be able to follow various users across the Fediverse and view all their posts in the Threads app, or will I just be able to sign in to their servers with my threads account?

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#78

Post by pentagrama »

> If you’re a publisher, creator or brand on Flipboard, you’ll start to see new visitors and engagement as people discover and share your content across the growing Fediverse.

I think it should be opt-in. Users should be asked if their content will be distributed on new places. This is a deceptive UX pattern to push a new feature [1].

[1] https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/automat...

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#79

Post by Barrin92 »

RandallBrown wrote: post #77
iteratethis wrote: post #29

Threads is also testing federation, it supposedly is close to being enabled. Interesting dynamic is that Mastodon's community is such a sour bunch that likely most instance owners will block federation with Threads at the domain level. Because "Meta evil". This takes away choice at the user level. Normal people that just want to connect with people and content no matter where it is hosted, which is the very purpose o…

I don't fully understand what federation means for something like Threads and Mastodon. Will I be able to follow various users across the Fediverse and view all their posts in the Threads app, or will I just be able to sign in to their servers with my threads account?

>Will I be able to follow various users across the Fediverse and view all their posts in the Threads app

If it's going to function like any other Fediverse app, which I assume for now, then yes. You can follow people across instances and have both a local and global feed.

Re: Flipboard Begins to Federate

#80

Post by iteratethis »

rchaud wrote: post #64
iteratethis wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When your instance moderator makes the choice to block Threads at domain level, you're fully blocked from seeing any Threads content or interacting with any Threads user. It could be that as an instance user you like this decision, but it does take away your choice to moderate Threads users and content yourself.

> but it does take away your choice to moderate Threads users and content yourself. Or you just create a different account on any one of the several Mastodon instances out there. Mastodon doesn't have the ability to ban you from all of the fediverse. It doesn't take away choice, it simply gives an additional option to the instance admin. Don't like it? Start your own instance.

This is the default "just move to another instance" take of Mastodon. It's impractical if not hostile.

It masks the reality of the situation which is that instance moderators have too much of a say in what individual users get to see or do.

This attitude is exactly why there's a trend towards ever larger instances.

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